Five more members of the gang held: CID

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday claimed to have arrested five members of an orgnaised trafficking syndicate which was involved in trafficking girls to India and forcing them into sex trade.

This syndicate allegedly trafficked around 20 girls from Bangladesh so far and sold them to their counterparts in India.

Two members of the syndicate, acting as husband and wife first used to take a house on rent in a locality, and then targeted young girls in the neighborhood by alluring them of a better job abroad, said Sheikh Md Rezaul Haider, an additional deputy inspector general of CID, at a press briefing at its headquarters.

The five arrestees were identified as Md Shaheen, Md Rafiqul Islam, Biplob Ghosh, Aktarul, and Md Bablu. A CID team arrested them from Jashore, said Haider.

Before the arrest of five, four other members of the syndicate including the ringleader Mohemunuzzaman, also known by the names Pratik Khandaker and Babu, were arrested last month.

According to CID, arrestee Shaheen is a driver by profession, and used to carry victims out of Dhaka to a bordering area by car.

Rafiqul has a house in Sharsha area of Jashore; he used to keep the victims in his house before trafficking them to India. Biplob and Bablu are associates of Rafiqul, said CID officials.

There has a canal on the border between Bangladesh and India in Sharsha of Benapole. Bablu was responsible to take the victim to the Indian side by crossing the canal on boat, they said.

Quoting victims, special superintendent of CID Kaniz Fatema -- who coordinated the drive to arrest the five -- said the syndicate members used sedative injections while trafficking victims out of Dhaka.

"We have also found evidence from a victim that she was sexually harassed and physically tortured before being trafficked," she said.

Citing primary investigation findings, Fatema said the syndicate members used to keep victims in different houses after trafficking them from Dhaka, and later forced them to engage in sex trade.

CID officials said they have came to know that these girls were trafficked to India's Rajkot.

Replying to a question, Rezaul Haider said that they are yet to find involvement of any government officials with the trafficking syndicate yet. "We would able to say clearly after the end of investigation," he added.

According to investigators, arrestee Mohemunuzzaman and his associate Jerin once used to work in a hotel in Malaysia and got involved in the human trafficking gang when they returned home five years back.

The investigators had reportedly found involvement of 10 people with the syndicate, and nine of them have already been arrested.